She who moves the World of-
Pyrrha Nikos trained to be as great as a warrior as she could with the help of her semblance Polarity, but in the process lost the freedom to interact with others. The Invincible Girl was indeed untouchable, unable to connect with the souls of others. But luckily, she runs into someone with a body and soul of steel. There's a reason she's only won the Mistral tournament four times instead of five. ShirouxPyrrha Oneshot series
Pyrrha looked at herself in the mirror of her locker room. She looked beautiful, combat ready, determined. It was clear, she looked like a champion.
But most of all, to her, she looked lonely. Without even her family visiting to wish her luck, positive that she would win yet again.
Her gifts were a curse now. Once upon a time, she saw them as a blessing. A way to pave her way into the hearts of others through glory as Pyrrha the Warrior.
She did, and now Pyrrha the Girl had no room in those hearts.
She blamed only herself for this. She ignored others her age in order to focus on her training, and in the process had nobody by the time she began to fight others.
She was untouchable in battle, and unreachable out of it.
She could only console herself that this would be the last tournament she would enter in Mistral. After this, she would enter Beacon, far away from Mistral and her fame, and in a team with people that would begin to see her for her.
"And entering the final match! Our Invincible Girl, Pyrrha Nikos!"
She took that as her cue to exit into the cheering crowds.
Her sword and shield were raised into the air triumphantly even though the battle hadn't even started. At her show arrogance the crowd ate it up and roared louder.
"And our dark horse! The newest challenger of this tournament who laid a swift defeat at his fellow archer and our runner up Ye'lo! Our Hero of Wrought Iron!"
A new face entered the arena. It was steel faced until his face was revealed to the crowd, then he smirked as victoriously as she did.
The female audience cheered harder than she ever heard them cheer before.
For good reason, her opponent was handsome. His red hair as vibrant as her own. He didn't show much skin, but his body was toned. His Golden Eyes were engaging and enchanting. Looking into them made her want to raise her shield up and bare her arms to him. His gaze was piercing, worse than the Grimm she's faced.
"Shirou Emiyaaaa!"
His golden and black armor encased his body and shins. His arms had archery wrist guards in the same color. He had a red half cape at his waist like she did, though it was of slightly different design.
"Get ready for a show everyone!"
Shirou brought out his weapons, two white and black swords merged at the bottom of the hilt, turning it into one weapon.
He inched closer, just as she did.
"Good luck." She couldn't help but say, after all, she knew how challenging it could be to walk up to her, never mind fighting her.
"3!"
Shirou responded in a sportsmanlike manner. "Back at you."
"2!"
It was odd that he would wish her good luck, ever since her perfect victory at her first tournament opponents generally stopped responding to her pleasantries.
"By the way, regardless of who wins, why don't we go on a date afterwards." Her surprise at his sudden invitation showed he caught her off guard.
"1!"
The two spun from their original positions and clashed their weapons together. One of the redheads was slower, giving the other more ground.
1 second.
A yellow energy line connected from the back of Shirou's blades as his swords showed that they could also be a bow.
Pyrrha understood what he wanted, and stopped pushing her sword against his to retreat. Because of the surprise he got the drop on her, his weapon close to her body and his dust arrow primed right at her.
Only for her retreat to mean nothing. "Agh!"
4 seconds.
Her shield arm rung at his arrow.
The power behind that hit was stronger than anything she's ever received before. Generally she'd use her semblance to make powerful hits miss, but it wasn't only incredibly powerful, it was fast. Even worse, it was made of dust, making it much harder for her to manipulate.
His sword bow creaked, and she was forced to roll to the side as the ground she stood broke apart.
6 seconds.
She couldn't take another one of those hits, it would rattle her body on its power alone, with the dust mixed in who knows what would happen to her.
Pyrrha tried running circles around him, using her semblance to speed herself up, and took potshots at him with her rifle.
Shirou simply stared neutrally at her, a contrast to his previous words, and blocked her shots with his swords.
20 seconds.
The longer he spun his weapon to block her shots, the brighter it began to glow and she realized that his sword was absorbing her dust bullets.
She stopped firing and rushed him shield first. At least up close she could slightly manipulate his weapon and hopefully make him miss.
He sliced a set of red beams towards her that she was narrowly able to avoid.
25 seconds.
Pyrrha was forced to jump in the air when he detached and slammed his swords into the ground causing a rising inferno.
That was her mistake.
Shirou's eyes narrowed as he quickly reattached his swords into his bows form, and it was only now that she noticed that the hilts of the swords had opened up to reveal a rainbow colored energy where he pulled his arrows from.
Arrows as fast as lightning and just as potent slammed into her and numbed her body. Her shield doing nothing but letting the shocks run into her arm. With no other choice she threw her spear using the gun recoil to stop Shirou.
30 seconds.
"Incredible! Our bow wielding warrior has done what no other could and hit our Invincible Girl!"
Not thinking of the battle hungry smile on her face, Pyrrha used her semblance to bash herself shield first into Shirou who had side jumped her spear.
32 seconds.
She ran forward and picked up her spear and stabbed consecutively, scratching his weapon in his attempts to defend.
37 seconds.
Shirou shot a blue arrow into the ground and water sprung forth and washed the two away.
Pyrrha stumbled towards Shirou in recovery, knowing that letting him rebalance himself would spell her loss even if she had readjusted first.
43 seconds.
She noticed that Shirou's hand was reaching for his weapon, seeing this opening she stabbed with her spear.
46 seconds.
Only for her to be kicked back as if he already knew it was coming. He was still on the ground and she pressed the current height advantage.
He swiped aside each of her blows with no problem.
54 seconds.
He once more predicted that she would throw her shield to off balance him and he kicked it away and charged forward.
She was forced to yelp as he swept her legs and she fell.
Arrows hit the ground around her body and encased her arm in ice, she tried to ignore the burning sensation and move but then the ground itself seemed to have swallowed up her limbs.
She heard footsteps and turned to see him still priming an arrow.
62 seconds.
She smiled almost bitterly yet clearly impressed at the same time. "I surrender."
He smiled in return and put away his weapon but not not before taking a small arrowhead. Stabbing it into the ground, she was released from her prison.
Shirou Emiya reached out to her.
She took it happily.
"I-Incredible! Our newcomer has defeated our Champion within a minute! Give a round of applause for our red haired warriors!"
Despite having lost for the first time in forever, Pyrrha felt as elated as the first time she won the tournament. With her hand still in Shirou's she raised it above toward the Heavens.
"You're an incredible fighter." She complimented him.
"As are you, unfortunately for you my repertoire is a bad match up." He shrugged nonchalantly as they smiled toward some cameras.
Indeed, those arrows were on another level compared to Ye'lo's, the only other person who was closest to matching her. She was also an archer, but used metal arrows and wasn't able to shoot as fast or as accurate as Shirou.
"So you think you're up for a little date after this?" He teased her, referencing his earlier distraction.
She laughed. "Only if you're the one paying."
"I'm not the one on a cereal box."
The Two Redheads ate in disguise at a pizza place at Shirou's insistence.
While Pyrrha generally preferred to abstain from such food, she went because Shirou said that "Teenagers should eat unhealthy every now and again to be healthy. It's just normal. Still, when we have time, I'll cook something healthy to make up for this."
She wore sunglasses and a beret with her hair in braids. Her clothes consisted of a skirt and a blouse that showed her shoulders. It was a bit over the top and highlighted her attractiveness, but her mother refused to not let Pyrrha go with Shirou without being dolled up a little, even though he clarified that it wasn't actually a date(which she was disappointed about to be honest).
Shirou in contrast was much more simple, wearing jeans and a white shirt with blue shoulders. His hair was spiked back and he wore grey contacts which surprisingly changed his appearance enough that she had a double take.
It's been quite a long time since she last socialized like this she realizes, or perhaps it was the first time at all as a teenager.
Shirou was quite good at leading the conversation in a way that she didn't feel awkward, so she felt as relaxed as she would be at home. She learned a lot about him. He lived outside the kingdoms and often trained with actual Huntsman that he traveled with. He enjoyed cooking and was also a skilled blacksmith. Still, he never did say...
"So Shirou, are you planning on going to any of the Huntsman Academies?" She asked hoping that he might say Beacon.
"I'll be going to Haven actually, you?"
She held back the urge to look disappointed, "Beacon for myself."
Shirou gave her an understanding and optimistic look. "Well don't get down too easily. Just because it looks like you might not get along with someone doesn't mean you can't."
She could certainly hope so. "Well if all goes well your team can be sent for the Vytal Festival."
Shirou hummed in affirmation. "Well given that I just beat the Invincible Girl my odds of not getting sent are rather low."
"Why don't we trade scroll numbers so we can keep in contact? We do have quite a few months until the academies begin to teach." She offered.
He smiled. "Sure. I expect that we'll be spending some time together in the coming months since we won't be seeing each other very often after that."
She brushed her hair back with her clean hand. "Shall we go for a walk? We have some rather nice weather today." If she wasn't going to be able to see her new friend very often, she'd like to get the most of it.
In the coming months Pyrrha and Shirou spent time together; at least three times a week but often went for more than that. Pyrrha was eager to spend time with him and realized that Shirou didn't have many friends due to his travels, which was why he often complied.
The two didn't only spend time within Mistral. Due to their status as Mistral's greatest, they were often invited around the kingdom. Sometimes Shirou would bring her outside the kingdoms' walls on his motorcycle 'Saber' and they would visit Villages or hunt Grimm. If she was being honest these ventures alongside training with Shirou improved her skill more than what she thought possible.
It was brought to the point where her battle outfit and weapons changed.
Her fingers were exposed but the rest of her arm up to her shoulders were now armored in gold alongside her legs which were now fully covered in armor up to her thighs. She had a metal scale skirt that covered the black shorts underneath. Her chest was trapped golden armor with the cape she once held at her waist flowing behind it. The red toga underneath her armor covered up her belly. Her ringlet was replaced by a golden wreath atop her hair.
Her weapons didn't change much, merely becoming much larger. Her shield covered her whole arm and her spear was now the height of her body. They were also now able to detonate the dust inside the weapons remotely from the other weapon, a precaution to help hide her semblance whenever she launched one weapon.
Her new set of battle armor and the improved forms were both done by Shirou after one of their ventures ruined her previous leather armor.
For a short time Pyrrha had her hair flowy and untied until she realized that it would take some time to get used to fighting that way, so until she could she would keep her hair tied in the ponytail.
Her control over her semblance also improved, no longer needing to be directed by her hands. She was able to much more easily and effectively control her weapons and armor in battle to boost her speed and strength.
While the record between her and Shirou was still highly in his favor, she took it as a compliment to her skill that she was able to win so much against him, even he said that he needed to revamp his training if he wanted to keep the score in his favor.
They had one more month together until they would leave for their separate Huntsman Academies.
So even now, as they hunt a herd of beowolves for a village, she can't help but be distracted by the somber feeling inside her.
"Pyrrha, if you don't keep focus, you'll end up letting your armor get dent when we reach them."
She shook her head, trying to clear her thoughts. "Sorry Shirou, I guess I'm not ready to go to Beacon just yet."
These past few months have been the greatest months in her life if she was being honest. She's gone through so many precious realizations in those months. She, who still strove to be the perfect warrior despite knowing the costs, had once thought she could not become any stronger and was proven wrong. She, who thought that there was nobody who could understand her, was proven wrong. She, who thought that she would never fall in love without lying about who she was...
Was proven wrong.
At the center of the one who caused these realizations, was the person who had showed her just how wrong she was on all accounts without realizing it.
Shirou had beaten her and trained with her, he spent nights listening to her when she couldn't hold in her frustrations about what she felt toward others people and even her family, he had showed her that being alone wasn't her only future.
She couldn't pinpoint where these feelings sprouted, but as her mother once said, she would simply know that those feelings were indeed there. And because of it, she wasn't sure how she would deal with the heartache of separation.
"We can't expect to stick together all the time. Even in battle we separate to take down the Grimm, all we can hope for is that our paths will still cross." He tried to comfort her.
Pyrrha appreciated the effort, as always, but Shirou's warrior analogies didn't help in this case, because this wasn't a problem Pyrrha the warrior had, but Pyrrha the girl.
"Shirou..." What she wanted to say made her heart pound more than a battle ever could, but she needed to say this, for no regrets. "...I...must be honest with you... the feelings I feel towards you...are not entirely platonic..."
Shirou could read the mood and looked at her with the same caring eyes he always had. "Are you sure about these feelings of yours? You may just find that I'm not what you're expecting."
Shirou, always looking out for others, always in a world of his own. He saw the world in a way no one else did.
She didn't understand him very well, but she wanted that to change. So she stepped towards him, a hand on her chest and his. She imagined their hearts beating slowly in sync.
"Even so, it is worth a try."
A hand that shapes metal to its whims.
A hand that moves metal to its whims.
An Amazon and a Nomad. Let the future be forged with their hands.
Their destiny, now intertwined, may lead to Tragedy, or Prosperity.